UAF researcher gets data on Pluto’s atmosphere

March 17, 2016

Photo by NASA. This high-resolution, enhanced color view of Pluto was taken on July 14, 2015.

Pluto has a thinner layer of atmosphere than previously thought, according to researchers who are sifting through the data gathered by NASA's New Horizon spacecraft.

This means that Peter Delamere, a space physicist with the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, will be busy for a while.

"Since we can’t land on Pluto to study it, the area around it is going to tell us so much about what the planet is like, particularly the atmosphere," Delamere said.

The New Horizon mission was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in 2006. Its mission was to get a better understanding of Pluto and its moons and to look at the Kuiper Belt, the rocky swath of ice worlds that encompasses Earth’s solar system. Last year in July, the craft flew by Pluto, providing a first close look at the planet and its many moons.

The first scientific discussions and findings of Pluto’s atmosphere have been published in the March issue of Science magazine. Delamere is one of the authors.

Delamere and his colleagues were interested in the first assay of Pluto’s atmosphere and temperatures. Other scientists are looking at Pluto's geology and surface composition.

Three years before New Horizons launched, Delamere used computer models to determine how the solar wind would flow around Pluto and engage with its atmosphere. The model was used in planning the New Horizons mission.

He and others predicted that the solar wind would interact with Pluto's atmosphere on a much larger scale than it actually did, Delamere said.

Instead, the solar wind was deflected by Pluto’s outer atmosphere much closer to Pluto’s surface. The observation provided new data that provided a better calibration for Pluto’s atmosphere.

Of particular interest to Delamere is how the atmosphere and solar wind behaves as it swirls past Pluto, leaving a trail of heated gas or plasma. At first look, it appears the plasma has blobs, again not a finding Delamere expected.

“Pluto continues to deliver surprises,” he said. “We haven’t seen anything like it before.”

ADDITIONAL CONTACT: Peter Delamere, 907-474-6442 or peter.delamere@gi.alaska.edu